The King and I: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:48, 14 September 2006

Revision as of 05:26, 2 October 2006

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===Notes on the Music===

The most well-known songs from the musical are probably "Whistle a Happy Tune," "Getting to Know You," "Hello, Young Lovers," and "Shall We Dance?" Three songs omitted in the film-version -- "My Lord and Master" , "I Have Dreamed", and "Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?" -- were nonetheless included in the commercial soundtrack recording. The song, "I Have Dreamed" was used as an instrumental in the background score. (Interestingly, the song "Western People Funny," sung by Lady Thiang in the stage version, appears in the film only as orchestral background music.) Also, theThe first part of the "Song of the King", was omitted, but also used in the commercial Soundtrack recording. Only the second part of the song was retained. Even the Overture had to be substituted modified, due to the omssion of "I Have Dreamed", which to the film editor, considered this to be one too many love songs for Tuptim and Lun Tha. The most colorful [[Number (music)|number]] in the musical, both musically and visually (to Western audiences), is the ballet "Small House of Uncle Thomas," choreographed by [[Jerome Robbins]].

Rogers and Hammerstein knew they were writing for their stars, [[Gertrude Lawrence]] and [[Yul Brynner]], who were not true singers. Therefore, they reserved the sweeping, deep melodies for the characters of Tuptim and Lun Tha and kept the songs sung by the other leads very simple.